On television: Intelligent ideas and relevant issues? That’s the kiss of death
Clever teenager takes on the establishment and (usually) wins? The media uses its platform to mock itself? A family of doctors is dysfunctional? And really, what is wrong with cowboys in spaceships? Well, the problem with those ideas is that they were the premises of shows I liked, and they all got canceled, usually within one season but inevitably right around the time I start liking them (Veronica Mars, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Out of Practice, Firefly). Obviously this is because they have intelligent writing, and the rest of America is much more pedestrian in its taste –
[...See, I wrote that ironically, but then couldn't bring myself to delete it, which means that I believe it to be true, at least to a significant degree. ]
Anyway, shows I like get canceled, and there’s nothing like getting 18 episodes into Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on Hulu before bothering to look it up on IMDB, only to find that, yeah, I’ve got four more episodes and that’s it. The end. Kaput.
I’m sure you could lump any five shows together and find commonalities, and other bloggers who are more in touch with current culture could weigh in with more credibility, but I find a couple of these shows — Veronica Mars and Studio 60, at minimum — to be the types of shows that deal with current cultural issues in a way that is more relevant than any print or television entertainment news. Veronica Mars hit on an uncountable number of issues, not limited to teen sexuality and virginity, racism and being Arab in America, class warfare between the haves and the have-nots, underage drinking, binge drinking, Christianity, and much more; Studio 60 took those same issues and gave them a primetime adult venue. Moreover, Studio 60 attempted to put a right-wing Christian in a starring role, a fabulous setup for culture war plotlines between her and her left-wing co-stars.
Both critically acclaimed shows? Canceled.
Unless you’ve been backpacking the Appalachian Trail for the past 12 months (euphemistically or not), you’ve noticed that America has entered another culture war — or perhaps our ongoing war has deepened; one that is flamed by intolerance and bigotry. Shows that attempt to confront the crazy — which is on both sides, albeit moreso on the right these days — don’t succeed because they’re up against mindless blather and reality television that showcases humanity at its worst. We are a tabloid civilization and only a few people are willing to think about the issues dividing us.
Consider the following NBC breakdown of Studio 60′s viewers (bolding is mine):
“Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” is averaging a 4.0 rating, 9 share in adults 18-49 and 9.8 million viewers overall (through November 6) and has increased its rating week-to-week in 18-49 with each of its last two telecasts. “Studio 60″ has consistently delivered some of the highest audience concentrations among all primetime network series in such key upscale categories as adults 18-49 living in homes with $75,000-plus and $100,000-plus incomes and in homes where the head of household has four or more years of college.
I am not making the point that people who with more education are “smarter” than people with less education, but I have found that people with more education tend to be more willing to confront issues like racism and classism to find out why the exist: what feeds them, what drives them, and treat the problem, as opposed to people who would rather either ignore the issues altogether and pretend they don’t exist, or treat the symptoms instead of the underlying condition. So when I see that Studio 60 had a relatively educated audience, I wonder what it would take to get less educated people to consider the culturally divisive issues of our day. And somehow, I don’t think the answer is reality television, whose producers prefer the lurid to the thoughtful and the pithy 20-second tearful endings to any investigation or real discussion.
*
I suppose you could dismiss this as the rant of an overeducated English major who’s bitter that her shows get canceled, but I hope you won’t. We’re seeing more and more evidence that America’s divide is growing, and although I am loathe to give credibility to feelings (emotions can be stupidly misleading), I can’t help but feel that this build-up isn’t going to be solved by presidential speeches; if at all, it’s going to be deflated with water-cooler conversations. A catalyst for this could be intelligent television, if only we could have some.